Reviews: Sakai, Stan

Tomoe’s Story —
Stan Sakai
Usagi Yojimbo, book 22

Tomoe’s
Story is the 22nd volume in Stan Sakai’s long-running Usagi
Yojimbo anthropomorphic comic series. It collects six stories featuring
Tomoe, a feline woman samurai, who keeps crossing paths with Miyamoto
Usagi. Unlike other friends/allies, such as morally unencumbered Gen
and ostentatious jerk Inukai, Usagi and Tomoe share many moral
perspectives, but their friendship is not without its complications.

The Wanderer’s Road —
Stan Sakai
Usagi Yojimbo, book 3

Labels
matter. If I said “funny animal comic” you might think of Mickey
Mouse, Captain Carrot, or Tom & Jerry. If I said “anthropomorphic
comic,” you might remember somewhat less humorous graphic novels: Maus,
Erma Felna EDF,
and the subject of today’s review, Usagi Yojimbo.
Or more specifically, Stan Sakai’s 1989 Usagi
Yojimbo Book Three: Wanderer’s Road,
which collects short pieces crafted between 1987 and 1989.

Miyamoto
Usagi is a long-eared lagomorphronin living in a fantasy version of Edo-era Japan. There, everyone
is some form of anthropomorphic animal1: rabbits, snakes, monkeys
and so on. Lacking a master, Usagi moves from place to place, having
adventures along the way.